Word: abyss
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...nobody who dreams of being a somebody." So went the trailer blurb for Martin Scorsese's mesmerizing "Taxi Driver," a portrait of an ordinary guy whose mind works a little differently from the rest of us. Before our eyes, Travis Bickle slides deeper and deeper into a mental abyss, into a world buffeted on all sides, as he believes, by the sordidness of the city around him--until he finally takes action...
...billion dollars to assist the victims of the Rwandan tragedy. Funds might better be spent this time in preventive action. More than two years of brutal civil war have demonstrated that talk alone is not enough. "We need practical measures if we are not going to plunge into the abyss," warned a U.N. official last week. That may prove an understatement. For many Burundians, the plunge has already begun...
...Earth constricts. We imagine ourselves to be prisoners in solitary confinement, tapping crude coded messages on the dungeon wall and hoping for an answering tap--without which we stare at the queasy possibility that we are truly, absolutely alone. Such an abyss 1) may be infinitely more depressing than the assumption of human inferiority or 2) may argue, conversely, for the divine uniqueness and therefore preciousness of the human enterprise. An agnostic will split the difference and think of Voltaire: "Remember your dignity...
...much for them to debate. Hashimoto is burdened by a host of problems. The economy has shown negligible growth for four years. More and more, big Japanese companies are shifting factories overseas and idling plants at home. The banking system is teetering at the edge of a bad-loan abyss. Government officials have been swallowed up by one corruption scandal after another. Voters are restless: the last general election was held in 1993, and four different Prime Ministers have held office since then...
...KLEIN Nicholas Wright's off-Broadway drama apprehends the pioneering child psychologist Melanie Klein at a moment when her life perches above an abyss. It's an exacting role, and famed acting teacher Uta Hagen, at 76, executes a performance that is instructive at every step, advancing through arrogance, rage, bravado, fear...